Before & After: Floorboards to Cheese Boards

Brooklyn to West's Ariele has done it again. In my opinion, she's the junkyard, dumpster diving, demo-ed house DIY Queen. This gal finds discarded household materials throughout Brooklyn and transforms them into artistic, thoughtful, and beautiful everyday objects. Most recently, she's taken floorboards and changed them into cheese boards. Genius? YES!

Ariele never ceases to amaze me. I've been hooked on Brooklyn to West ever since Daniel of Manhattan Nest added it to his blogroll. If you haven't read about her cross country journey collecting wood, chairs, and artwork needed to design AND literally build a restaurant in Northern California, do it. You will not be disappointed. It's a story filled with ingenuity, creativity, 24-handmade tables, and a general "if you build it, they will come" spirit.

If you couldn't tell, I'm a huge Brooklyn to West fan. I woke up today to find a new ingenious before and after from Ariele. She stumbled upon trashed 10-inch floorboards from a house demo in her neighborhood and turned them into...cheese boards! Yes, cheese boards! After washing and sanding the discarded floorboards for hours, she's taken the saying "another man's trash is another man's treasure" to a whole new level. The cheese boards are beautifully crafted and embody what I think Ariele is all about: giving discarded, overlooked, mundane objects an artistic and utilitarian second chance.

Ariele will hopefully (fingers crossed!) be selling the cheese boards, along with other one-of-a-kind household goods in her online shop. These would make a great holiday gift so be sure to check it out.